Africa to be hit hard as UK slashes foreign aid

The UK government has unveiled details of its planned 40% reduction in foreign aid, with bilateral support for children’s education and women’s health in Africa among the hardest hit.

The new funding allocations revealed significant cuts to programs targeting corruption, media freedom, trade, and economic security, while several climate-related initiatives were eliminated.

According to the government’s assessment, this year’s education spending reductions are expected to impact Ethiopia, Sierra Leone, Nigeria, and Zimbabwe. Overall, the cuts will hit Africa and the Middle East the hardest.

The cuts are part of a broader strategy to boost defence spending to 2.5% of gross domestic product, following pressure from the United States.

Foreign Secretary David Cameron previously announced the aid budget would fall from 0.5% to 0.3% of national income.

Multilateral bodies spared for now

While multilateral aid to bodies like the World Bank and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, will be protected, direct funding to individual countries, especially in Africa, will see major reductions.

The Foreign Office said underperforming multilateral organisations could face future cuts and acknowledged that aid to certain unnamed countries would drop.

However, funding for the International Development Association (IDA), the World Bank’s fund for low-income countries, will remain intact, with the UK committing £1.98 billion over three years.

The UK is pulling back at a time when U.S. support for global gender programming has already been gutted.

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